Deconcentrator



March 6, 1934. w ARMACOST 1,949,853

DECONCENTRATOR Filed D66. 15, 1932 I NV EN TOR.

.4 TTORNE Y.

Patented Mar. 6, 1934 t UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DECONCENTRATORWilbur H. Armacost, New York, N. Y., assignor to The SuperheaterCompany, New York, N. Y.

Application December 15, 1932, Serial No. 647,331

6 Claims. (01. 122-459) The present invention relates to devices of thedirectly or via a superheater to the point of congeneral type disclosedin United States application sumption. for patent Ser. No. 600,864,filed by J. A. Powell The water in the deconcentrator drum is, as onMarch 24, 1932, having for their object the stated above, preferablyfeed water on its way to purification of steam coming from boilers. Thethe boiler and is of the ordinary chemical purity principal impuritiesin such steam are not in the of such feed water. It may, for example, beform of solids carried along directly by the steam taken from a hot wellwith the addition of the but are held in solution or in suspension inthe necessary makeup water. It is fed into the deconmoisture entrainedby the steam. The general centrator drum at a rate corresponding to that10 principle on which such a device operates is to at which steam is ledfrom the boiler drum into let the steam from the boiler bubble throughthe deconcentrator drum except for the variation water, in a separatedrum, the concentration of occasioned by the additional heat requiredtoheat impurities in which water is much less than the up the feed waterand to make up for radiation concentration in the boiler. In practicefeed losses.

water on its way from the hot-well to the boiler To carry the feed waterfrom the deconcenis used. The steam in passing through this water tratordrum to the boiler there is a connection will ordinarily carry moisturewith it which may from the water space of the former to the latterapproximate in amount that which was taken preferably with a provisionto prevent the water from the boiler as the steam flowed from theboillevel in the deconcentrator drum from falling be- 29 er. Themoisture which the steam may carry low a predetermined level.

along as it is liberated from the purer water in In such an arrangementit has heretofore been the drum is thus bst tut d o the a ve yessential, as mentioned above, that the deconcenhighly concentratedmoisture which it brought trator drum be placed at an elevation abovethe with it from the boiler. The term deconcentraboiler drum, thedistance depending upon the has been accepted as the a for isappadifference in pressure between the two drums. fetus and Will be dhereins fi a ce This pressure difference is occasioned by the reofcourse is that the impurities in the Steam a e sistance of the steamflow from the boiler to the edi amount y the rr ngement. steam space ofthe deconcentrator drum, such The arrangement ShOWninSeid pp ieat onperesistance being partly due to friction losses in 30 supposes that thedeconcentrator drum be located the pipe and discharge nozzles, andpartly to the at a level higher than the water level of the boiler. h adof water against which the steam is dis- The amount which it is raisedabove such level charged, The required height will for an averagedepends upon conditions under which the device ase be a matter of a fewfeet. is to function. If such an appliance is to be used in connectionThe Object of the present invelltien is o ake with a locomotive boileror in connection with available a deconcentrator Of this type for e someother boiler where the necessary head room conditions under which th a aement shown is not available, a serious difliculty at once arises, i tapplication cannot be used. which my invention is intended to overcome.

e relatively P Water in the deconcentrator This difficulty relates tothe rate at which water drum is p a y d Water r t i r. T is fed to thedeconcentrator drum and the rate at Steam s discharged into the y of theWater y which it is carried from the deconcentrator drum suitablenozzles. A part of the steam will be t the boiler, condensed a d itslatent heat W raise h There are several factors which affect the waterperature of the incoming feed water to the vaporlevel in thedeconcentrator drum. There is first izing point. A further amount willbe condensed the rate at which water is forced into it by the 100 tomake up for radiation heat losses. The refeed water pump. Next there isthe rate at which mainder of the steam will either bubble directly wateris removed from the drum and led to the u h th wat r, th id t al st am lavin boiler. Then there is the fact that a certain the surface of thewater in the deconcentrator fraction of the steam from the boiler on itsardrum or possibly some of it may condense and rival in thedeconcentrator drum is condensed in 105 evaporate water to replace it.Which of these two heating the feed water to boiler temperaturewithhappens is immaterial. In any event, every parout evaporating any ofthe water. This conticle of the steam comes into intimate contactdensate is added to the water in the deconcenwith water in thedeconcentrator drum and is trator drum. Further the amount of moistureinthoroughly washed. This steamisnext led either troduced by the steammay not, and probably will not, balance exactly the amount carried awayby the steam leaving the deconcentrator drum. Further, heat radiationlosses from the deconcentrator drum will be made up by steam whichcondenses and for which no equivalent amount will leave thedeconcentrator.

All of these factors can readily be disregarded in the arrangements suchas shown in the said application as the level in the deconcentrator drumwill automatically remain constant from the nature of the arrangement;but to make possible installations where the deconcentrator drum cannotbe placed the required distance above the boiler water level, provisionmust be made to supply water to, and to remove water from the drum atthe proper rates. My invention provides. a system presenting a solutionto this difiiculty.

In the drawing the single figure representsdiagrammatically aninstallation of the sortreferred to and embodying my invention. Theboiler drum iszshownatulaand the'deconcentrator drum at 2, the latterbeing below the average water level 3 of: the boiler. The mixtureofsteam and water from. the boiler tubes 4 is discharged into theboilerdrum 1, where the steam is separated out, and fromwhich, togetherwith its entrained moisture, it flows to the deconcentrator drum 2 bymeansof. the pipe 5. It is discharged under the water level of thedeconcentrator drum by the nozzle 6. The steam generated in the water ofthe deconcentratordrum or bubbling through such waterand collecting inthe steam space of the drum 2.1eaves said drum by means of the pipe '7,being carried, preferably by way of a superheater, to the point of use.Water is fed into the deconcentrator drum by any preferred pumping meansthrough the pipe 8. This pipe 8 discharges the water. into the-trough 9in the drum. From this troughthe water flows through a series of weirsformed in its long free edge into the drum space proper, being forced bythe baflle 10 to flow first downward toward the bottom of the drum. Thiswater forced in through pipe 8 is, as in the original Powellapplication, the feed water for the boiler and is of relatively very lowconcentration. It leaves the drum 2 to flow to the boiler through pipe11, falling first through a series of weirs in the upper edge of plate12 into the space 13. This prevents the water level in thedeconcentrator drumfrom falling below the level of these weirs.

As the drum 2 is at a-point such that the water cannot flow from it bygravity to drum 1, means must be employed to force it. For this purposea steam turbine and pump are employed. The steam turbine is shown at 14.It is operated by the steam flowing through pipe 5 on its way from thedrum 1 to the drum 2. The pump is shown at 15 and it delivers water fromthe pipe 11 to the pipe 16 and so to the boiler.

The pressure difference between the deconcentrator drum 2 and the boilerdrum 1 is only a matter of a few pounds and the turbine 14 and pump 15are designed so they are able to pump water at a rate in excess byweight of the maximum rate at which the steam passes through the turbine14. The rate at which the water is actually pumped is regulated by thevalve 17, whose position varies in response to the changes in the waterlevel 3. This is efiected by means of a float control 18 which sets thevalve 1'7 in response to such level changes, opening it more if thelevel drops and closing it more if the level rises. When the valve 17 isthrottled down so that the water passes at a rate less by weight thanthe steam is passing through the turbine 14, the pump 15 will, due tothe nature of such pumps, still perform satisfactorily.

The water level in the deconcentrator drum is kept up to the requiredpoint and not allowed to exceed it by means of the float controlledvalve 19. The float for this is shown at 20 and regulates the valve 19so that the level in the deconcentrator is kept up to but does notexceed the desired point.

In this manner all discrepancy in the rate at which water enters drum 2and the rate at which it leaves that drum, due to the factors pointedout above is taken care of and a system is provided functioning assmoothly as the one in which the deconcentrator drum is arranged at theelevation heretofore required.

What I claim is:

1. In apparatus of the class described the combination of a boiler, adrum, connections whereby feed water on its way to the boiler passesthrough said drum, means to cause steam from the boiler on its way tothe point of use to pass through the water in the drum, a pump to forcethe water from the drum into the boiler, and an engine driven by thesteam on its way to the drum actuating said pump.

2. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, the drum being so locatedrelatively to the boiler that under normal operating conditions waterwill not flow by gravity into the boiler from the drum.

3. Apparatus in accordance with claim 1, the drum being so locatedrelatively to the boiler that under normal operating conditions waterwill not flow by gravity into the boiler from the drum, the apparatusfurther comprising a valve between the pump and the boiler to regulatethe rate at which water is fed from the drum to the boiler.

4. In apparatus of the class described, the combination of a boiler, adrum, means to force water into the drum, a turbine-driven pump,

means to cause steam from the boiler on its way to the point of use todrive the turbine and to pass through the water in the drum, means todeliver water from the drum to the pump and from the pump to the boiler,the design of the turbine and pump being such that the pump is alwayscapable of delivering more water by weight from the drum to the boilerthan there is steam flowing through the turbine, and a valve in themeans to deliver water from thepump to the boiler operative responsivelyto the water level in the boiler limiting the amount of water delivered.

5. Apparatus in accordance with claim 4, the

means to deliver water from the drum to the pump being such that thewater in the drum cannot be lowered by the pump below a predeterminedpoint.

6. Apparatus in accordance with claim 4, the means to deliver water fromthe drum to the pump being such that the water in the drum cannot belowered by the pump below a predetermined point, the apparatus furthercomprising means responsive to the level of the water in the drum tocontrol the rate of water supply to I?- the drum.

WILBUR. H. ARMACOST.

